Nobel Prize science gets strange when light can change a mouse’s response to a frightening memory. Dr. Samantha Yammine makes optogenetics understandable, including the distance between this laboratory research and the mind-control scenario it might bring to mind.
Then picture trying to detect something that passes through your body without you noticing. At the South Pole, a vast stretch of ice becomes part of the search. What could scientists possibly see there that they couldn’t see before?
The strangest distinction might be hiding in a molecule’s mirror image. Two versions can look almost identical and behave differently in the body. Samantha has a familiar example that makes getting the right version feel considerably less abstract.
Topics: Nobel Prize science, optogenetics, memory research, neutrinos, mirror-image molecules
GUEST: Dr. Samantha Yammine | http://samanthayammine.com
Originally aired on2026-10-19
